


Across the River

by quietlycrash



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - America, Alternate Universe - College/University, Autumn, Cuddling & Snuggling, Depression, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Holding Hands, Ice Cream, Nonbinary Character, Other, Pangender Character, Pining, Pining Zayn, Plans For The Future, Platonic Cuddling, School, Trans, Trans Character, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-12 20:16:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7121014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietlycrash/pseuds/quietlycrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pangender English major Zayn slowly falls in love with nonbinary music major Niall. There are also werewolves, gelato with sprinkles, and crunchy orange leaves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across the River

**Author's Note:**

  * For [peculiarise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peculiarise/gifts).



> I chose to represent Zayn as pangender by alternating the pronouns that I used throughout the story. I apologize if this is confusing, but I thought it was the best way to show Zayn's character. Niall uses ey/em/eir pronouns, which are new to me but I thought they suited this character's personality best. If I messed any pronouns up, I apologize, and please let me know. 
> 
> Also, Harry and Louis are trans, and Liam is a demiboy. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this. It's a little different universe than I was originally imagining, but I think it's happier.

“Harry thinks we should look for the werewolf on Saturday night.” Niall informs Zayn as soon as ey sits down next to her on the bench. Ey pulls out eir lunchbox, and Zayn smiles at the starry design. 

“Where does she think it’ll be?” Zayn asks. She takes a bite of the cold leftover soup she brought. Louis always says it looks disgusting, but she thinks the curry powder makes it taste even better the next day. 

“She swears she saw it last full moon across the Addy river from Lowell.” 

“The arts building? Wouldn’t you have heard it howling during your concert?” 

Niall smiles brightly, eir blue eyes sparkling. “Harry claims the howls sound just like the bass players.” Ey laughs softly, jolting some long blond hair into eir face. 

Zayn’s heart beats a little harder. “Well as long as you’ll be there to protect me from the werewolf if we really do find it…” She says shyly, looking down at her lap. 

“Of course! I would never miss out on a good werewolf search.” Niall laughs into the fall breeze. It’s one of Zayn’s favorite sounds in the whole world, and she loves the way it matches the bright orange and gold of the leaves. 

∞

“Hey, do you wanna come shopping for werewolf-search supplies this afternoon?” Louis asks Zayn quietly in the middle of their American Fiction class.

Zayn huffs a laugh under his breath. “What kind of supplies do we need to look for the werewolf?” He asks out of the corner of his mouth while he thinks the professor is distracted listening to another student. 

Louis shrugs. Zayn glances over at his notebook, and instead of seeing notes on the discussion, he sees a doodle of Louis dressed as Iron Man. Louis catches him looking and glares at him, blushing. 

“Like, stakeout supplies? So mostly food. I think Niall said ey has some binoculars from that bird-watching class ey took last semester.” 

Zayn smiles at the memory of sitting quietly in the Addison forest with Niall, waiting for birds to come. The look on Niall’s face when ey finally saw a female bluebird was one of the most beautiful things Zayn has ever seen. He wishes he could get it tattooed to his skin. 

“Should we get some silver bullets?” Zayn jokes. If Harry knew he was even thinking about a weapon in the presence of an animal, she would flip her shit. 

Louis cackles quietly. “Can you imagine Harry’s face if we pulled out even a fucking nerf gun on Saturday night?” 

“She would probably actually murder us. She would throw us to the wolves, literally.” Zayn laughs at his own joke, covering his mouth so he’s not too obvious. 

“That was terrible, Zayn.” Louis tells him, but the grin on his face says otherwise. “Seriously though, what food should we buy?” 

Zayn pauses to think. She scratches her head thoughtfully and nods at the professor, so she thinks that Zayn is paying attention to the discussion questions. Zayn is the best writer in the school, so it’s not like she actually needs to listen. 

“Marshmallows, definitely. And popcorn. I’ll come with you and we’ll see what inspires us.” She whispers once the professor’s back is turned again. 

“Should we bring some raw meat to lure the werewolf?” Louis snickers, and Zayn can’t help but join in.

∞

Zayn sleeps in on Saturday morning as usual, missing the group brunch. They wake up to an imessage from Niall asking to meet em at Zayn’s favorite coffeeshop for a late brunch, so Zayn starts their day with a smile. 

The café is nearly twice as far from Niall’s dorm than from Zayn’s dorm, but Niall still beats them there. When Zayn pushes the door open, a rush of cool fall wind blows in. Niall startles at the cold, and looks up. Eir long hair is purple now, and Zayn’s heart flutters at eir smile. 

Zayn walks over to the booth that Niall claimed with all of eir notebooks and post-it notes. 

“Hey.” Niall smiles up at them again. 

“Hiya. What did you get today?” Zayn asks, glancing at Niall’s empty peach-colored mug. 

“Chai tea latte. I’m trying to cut back on the amount of coffee I drink.” 

Zayn laughs quietly. “So, only three cups a day then?”

“Only three cups before noon.” Niall corrects them with a grin, and scratches another note in eir music theory notebook. 

“I’m going to go order some French toast, do you want anything?” 

“Maybe a regular latte this time… I cannot figure out what this author is trying to say at all.” Niall scratches a hand through eir hair. Zayn feels the urge to do the same, and imagines how soft it would feel. They feel a twist in their belly with the want, so they stand up hastily to go order at the counter. 

∞

“Okay, so here’s the plan.” Harry announces. She pulls out her giant whiteboard from her closet, and Zayn sees a bunch of cramped blue writing filling it with details of each person’s job. Zayn rolls her eyes. 

“Niall, you’re in charge of werewolf-spotting.” Harry looks seriously at Niall, and Niall nods happily in response. “Do you have your binoculars?” 

“Yep!” Niall holds them up in eir hand. Zayn catches herself admiring Niall’s beautiful fingers. They’re just so long and eir knuckles are so cute, and… okay that’s probably weird. Zayn blushes and looks away hastily, hoping no one noticed.

She doesn’t seem so lucky, judging by the way Harry has an eyebrow raised in her direction. “Zayn?” 

“Yes?” She replies, trying to sound confident. 

“You’re on snack duty. You can keep Niall company when the rest of us go off near the wolf. Ey will need someone to protect em.” 

“Hey!” Niall shouts indignantly. “I can handle myself, you know.” 

“Oh, please.” Louis snorts. “You’re five foot one and you haven’t run or lifted a weight in your life.” 

“Zayn doesn’t run either!” Niall counters, arms crossed over eir chest. Eir hair is tied back into a high pony tail, and it swings in the air with irritation.

“Zayn does yoga.” Liam inputs calmly, trying to diffuse the tension as always. “Zayn could probably kick your ass in a matter of seconds, not that Zayn is the type of person who would.” 

“I’ll fight a serial killer for you, Ni.” Zayn smiles at Niall, wrapping an arm around eir neck and squeezing. Niall pretends to fight her off, but Zayn knows ey really love it. 

“Awwwwwww.” Liam and Louis chorus, and Harry is looking at them endearingly. 

“Thanks, Zayn.” Niall smiles at her like everything is perfect, and for a moment it feels like it all is. 

“Anyways…” Louis interrupts the moment. He sounds irritated, but Zayn can see the half-smile on his face. 

“Louis, you’re our primary runner. That means you’ll be the first one going after the wolf.” Harry smiles at Louis. She’s still gesturing at the cramped white board, but Zayn is starting to think it’s all just a bunch of scribbles. 

“Yessssss.” Louis pumps his arms and flexes his arms to show off his biceps. Zayn laughs at him, and blows a kiss when Louis glares over at him.

“Liam, you’re the photographer. Did you borrow the camera from Olivia like I asked?” 

“Mmmhmm.” Liam holds up the camera proudly. 

“Do you know how to use it?” Louis asks with a laugh in his voice. 

Liam elbows him in the ribs, and Louis lets out a soft “oof” noise. “Yes, she showed me how at lunch today.” 

“Oooh, you had lunch with Olivia?” Niall asks Liam with a shit-eating grin on eir face. 

Liam’s face turns bright pink immediately. “It wasn’t a date. It’s not- no?” 

“Aw Liam, we’re so happy for you!” Louis beams widely, and pulls everyone in for a group hug with Liam at the center. 

Liam coughs uncomfortably after a moment. Zayn laughs as everyone pulls away with guilty looks on their faces. 

“What’s your job, Harry?” Zayn inquires. 

“I’m the secondary runner.” Harry beams excitedly. Her curls bounce around her head like they’ve absorbed some of her excited energy. 

“So you just chase after Louis?” Liam asks incredulously. 

“Pretty much.” Harry shrugs. “Is everyone ready? The moon is pretty high up in the sky so we should get going soon.” 

Everyone nods, and Zayn picks up the snack backpack (or the snackpack, as Harry has been calling it.) “Oof!” He grunts when he realizes how heavy it is. “What the hell is in here Louis? I was with you when we bought all the food.” He pulls open the top and rolls his eyes when he finds a full bottle of Tequila. 

“I am not carrying a glass bottle of Tequila into the woods.” He shoves the bottle into Louis’s chest. 

“Pretty please?” Louis pouts with his puppy dog face. 

“Louis! We need to have our wits about us if we’re going to have a shot at seeing this werewolf!” Harry scolds. Her forehead is creased in disappointment.

Louis sighs in defeat. “Fine.” 

“Let’s go!” Harry announces. She jumps excitedly in place and they all follow her out of the dorm.

∞

“Are there any more marshmallows?” Liam asks in a tone above a whisper, and Harry immediately shushes him. 

“Do you want to scare the werewolf off before we see it?” She whisper-yells, and then punches him in the shoulder. 

Liam pouts and rubs at his arms, but he brightens up when Zayn passes over the half-eaten bag of marshmallows. They’ve been sitting in a clearing in the forest across the river from campus all night. Every once in a while a breeze will shake some brittle leaves off the branches of the trees, but for the most part, it’s been surprisingly warm.

“It’s been four hours; do you really think we’re going to see it?” Niall asks in a whisper. Ey is sitting cross-legged on a plaid picnic blanket next to Zayn. The others are sprawled out on the dirt. It’s not Zayn’s fault that they’re the only one who thought to bring something to sit on. 

“Maybe we really should have gotten some raw meat.” Louis jokes at the same volume as Liam, and earns his own shoulder-punch from Harry. 

Just then, Zayn hears a crack from behind their group. They all whip around, but they can’t see anything in the dark. Liam slowly raises the camera and takes a picture with flash. In the bright light, Zayn can see a large furry creature running past. 

“Oh my god!” Niall shrieks. Zayn doesn’t think he’s ever heard eir voice at that high of a pitch before. 

Before he knows it, Louis, Harry, and Liam have taken off after the creature. He turns to face Niall with his eyebrows raised. 

“Holy shit.” Niall says, eir eyes wide. The moonlight sparkles in eir eyes.

Zayn can feel her heart beating heavily in her chest. She can’t tear her eyes away from Niall’s face. She opens her mouth to try to explain to Niall what she’s feeling, but her thoughts are interrupted by a nearby shout that sounds like Louis. 

“What the hell is that, Louis?” Harry yells in the distance. 

Zayn makes eye contact with Niall again, and they burst into laughter. She settles back down on the blanket, and rests her head on Niall’s shoulder. Niall grabs the bag of kettle corn and munches on a handful before offering the bag to Zayn. 

The two settle down and wait for the others to come back. Zayn feels like they somehow belong here, among the trees. 

∞

They don’t have to wait too long, although they did devour the entire bag of kettle corn before they see the others returning between two big pine trees on the other side of the clearing. 

Harry is walking in front, her arms crossed across her chest, with a disgruntled look on her face. Louis follows her immediately with his head hung and back hunched. Liam is in the back, walking with a bounce in step. 

Zayn raises their eyebrows. “What happened?” 

“Ask Louis.” Harry answers with a clip in her voice. 

Louis looks up at Zayn and Niall sheepishly. “I brought a nerf gun.” 

“No!” Niall laughs delightedly. “Did you hit the werewolf?” 

“Yeah, it was awesome!” Liam answers, and shrugs at the responding glare from Harry. “I even got a picture, I think. Harry’s just mad because she thinks the werewolf is hurt.” 

“It’s a nerf gun Harry, not a real gun…” Zayn reminds her gently.

“I know, it’s just the principle of the thing. We shouldn’t hurt animals.” 

Louis walks up to Harry and softly places a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Harry.” 

Harry’s shoulders relax. “It’s okay, I forgive you.” 

Louis brightens immediately and pulls Harry into a massive hug. 

“Let’s see that picture.” Niall scrambles to eir feet and walks over to Liam. Zayn joins them and watches the screen over Niall’s shoulder. 

Liam turns the camera back on and clicks through the photos until they see a picture with a blurry brown blob. Liam smiles brilliantly. “Look!”

“What am I looking at?” Zayn asks in a snarky tone. Niall elbows him. 

“The werewolf…” Liam deflates. “I guess it’s not the best picture ever.”

Harry and Louis walk over to join them, and Louis snorts. “That’s the understatement of the year, Payno.” 

“Hey, at least it’s something!” Liam answers defensively.

“True, true.” Zayn acquiesces, raising his hands in surrender. 

“Can we head back now? I’m getting cold.” Niall says, rubbing eir arms for warmth. Ey is wearing a soft grey sweater, but the night is getting colder. 

“I’m so fucking hot.” Louis replies, wiping the sweat off of his forehead to demonstrate. 

“Well, you did just run through the woods for like twenty minutes.” Zayn reminds him. 

Louis shrugs. “At least if we go back we can watch Halloweentown in Harry’s room.”

“Yes!” Liam punches the air in excitement, and Zayn can’t help but smile at his friends. 

∞

Zayn is too sad to move on Monday morning. He can’t even get himself to stand up to go to the bathroom. He feels terrible about himself all day, and he can’t even fall back asleep. He just stares at the blank white ceiling above his bed. 

Eventually, he hears a knock on the door. He can’t bring himself to stand up and answer the door, and hopes that whoever it is will either go away or realize that it’s unlocked. 

“It’s me.” He hears Niall’s voice through the door, and his stomach tightens. 

“Okay.” He croaks out. Embarrassingly, he tears up when Niall comes in with a bag of Zayn’s favorite pad thai from the restaurant in town. 

Ey walks over to Zayn. Niall’s soft hands brush his hair away from his face and ey lean down to kiss his forehead. Eir blue eyes seem like the only thing in the world. 

“Love you.” Niall whispers, and then leaves. 

Zayn can’t believe he is lucky enough to have someone who knows him so well and still loves him. The smell of the pad thai is making his stomach grumble, and he realizes that he’s starving. He finally has the energy to sit up and eat the pad thai, but he falls asleep immediately after that. 

∞

Zayn feels marginally better the next day, but she’s still too exhausted to go to class. She emails all of her professors about her depression hitting her, and thankfully they’re all understanding. Afterwards, she passes out again.

When she wakes up later in the afternoon, she eats the rest of the pad thai that she stored in her mini fridge. She sends Niall a snapchat of her holding the box with the caption “Thanks. love u <3” 

Niall sends back a picture of eir favorite clarinet with the caption “anytime” and a bunch of purple heart emojis. Zayn’s heart swells, which is a good sign that tomorrow will be even better. 

∞

Luckily, the next day Zayn has a class with their favorite professor. The class discussion is focused on a comparison between 1984 and We, considering the contexts of the different authors. This is one of Zayn’s favorite research topics, so they have a lot to say. 

After class, the professor calls them over. “Zayn, could I talk to you for a moment?”

Zayn feels a pit of dread form in their stomach. They really hope they won’t be in trouble for missing class. 

“Oh no! Don’t worry, this isn’t about missing class, I promise. You look white as a sheet.” The professor tells them, and gestures to a chair for Zayn to sit in. 

“Oh.” Zayn breathes out shakily. “What’s going on?” 

“I was wondering if you had plans for this summer after you graduate.” 

“Oh, I hadn’t really thought about it.” Zayn admits. “I guess I was just going to go back home and see if I could get a job as a barista or something.” They shrug. 

“Well, if you’re interested, I would love to hire you as an editor for my novel.” 

“I- what?” Zayn asks. They can’t even wrap their head around this. This would be an unbelievable and amazing opportunity. 

“I just finished my first draft of my novel last month, and I’ve been searching for some primary editors before I send the manuscript to some publishing companies. You’re an incredible writer, Zayn. I think you show promise as both an author and an editor.” The professor says sincerely. 

Zayn feels tears prick at their eyes. “That would be absolutely amazing. Thank you so much.” They say, and smile weakly back when the professor grins kindly at them. 

“Okay, let’s work on getting you hired!” 

∞

“I have some amazing news.” Zayn announces to Niall as they walk together towards the art building. Niall has orchestra rehearsal, and Zayn is helping em carry eir instruments. 

“Oh yeah?” Niall glances at Zayn as they continue to stroll on the leaf-covered sidewalk. Eir now-brunette hair blows into eir face. Zayn’s eyes catch on Niall’s bright blue eyes in contrast to the crimson and gold leaves behind em.

“My professor offered me a job as her editor for the summer after graduation!” Zayn can’t keep the smile off their face, and the smile only grows when they see Niall’s responding grin. 

“Wow! I’m so proud of you!” Niall reaches a hand up to tuck a piece of hair behind eir ear. “I might hang around campus over the summer, too. I’m going to try to continue composing some of my classical pieces, and the studio space here is better than anything back home.”

“That’s awesome, then we can hang out every night!” Zayn wiggles their hips in a little happy dance.

Niall’s tinkling laughter in response makes Zayn walk with a bounce in their step until they reach the art building. “Here ya go!” They announce as they hand over Niall’s second instrument. They still can’t keep straight which case contains which instrument. 

“See you later, Zaynie.” Niall leans in and gives them a quick kiss on the cheek before heading inside.

Zayn is frozen in place for longer than they want to admit. It feels like their skin is burning where Niall’s lips touched it. The autumn air seems cooler than before now that Niall is gone, but the music of the leaves falling puts a soft smile on Zayn’s face as they stroll back to their dorm.

∞

“How much of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking water?” Niall hums thoughtfully. “What do you think, Zayn?” 

Zayn shrugs. “A depressingly large amount.” 

Niall rolls eir eyes. “I’ll say thirty percent.” The barista shakes their head with a smile, and Niall groans in disappointment. “I guess I’ll just take a cup of plain chocolate gelato then.” 

“Do you have a guess?” The barista asks Zayn when he steps up to the counter. 

“Ten?” 

“Yes! Wow, you’re one of the first people to get it right today.” The barista announces excitedly. Zayn can’t help but smile in response. “Free rainbow sprinkles for you! What do you want them on?”

Zayn glances over at Niall who is in line next to him still. He smiles gently. “A small chocolate gelato cup, please.” 

The barista laughs quietly. “Sure thing.” They write a note on the cup, and soon Zayn and Niall are both holding cups of their favorite ice cream. 

“Here.” Zayn holds out his cup to Niall. “Let’s switch.” 

“What? No! You won those sprinkles fair and square.” Niall hugs eir ice cream cup closer to their chest, like Zayn would forcibly switch them.

“I don’t even like sprinkles.” He says and laughs when Niall twitches as if personally offended. 

“All right, all right.” Niall grumbles and exchanges their cups. “You don’t deserve these sprinkles.” 

They sit together at their usual table in the corner while they finish their ice cream. Zayn doesn’t think that life can get any better than this.

∞

“You should tell Niall, you know.” Harry tells Zayn one day while the two of them sit on the sidelines of a soccer match between the other three. 

Zayn sighs. She can’t tear her gaze away from where Niall is running and laughing, hair falling all over eir face. Niall is sweaty and flopping all over the place, but Zayn has never seen anyone so beautiful. 

“I wrote a poem about em the other day.” She admits without looking at Harry. 

“That’s so romantic.” Zayn can hear the hearts in her eyes. “I wish someone would do that for me.” She says wistfully. 

“Someone will.” Zayn answers firmly, looking over at Harry sincerely. “I mean it.”

“Okay.” Harry’s voice is small, but she leans over and rests her head on Zayn’s shoulder. Zayn is grateful for the extra warmth now that fall has turned cold. The sun is shining down onto the soccer field, making everything beautiful, but the light is too weak to provide heat.

∞

Zayn and Niall are huddled under their favorite tree across the river from the Bailey student center. It’s not quite warm enough for them to study outside, but Zayn brought homemade hot chocolate, and Niall brought a bunch of portable hand warmers. 

Zayn looks up from the novel she’s reading and gazes at Niall. Niall taps eir fingers against the blanket on eir knees while ey reads something from a music theory book. 

“Did you know,” Zayn starts, and her breath catches when Niall meets her gaze with a questioning look. “I only think in extremes when I’m around you?”

A worry line appears between Niall’s eyebrows. “What do you mean?” Ey asks, closing eir textbook carefully. 

Zayn takes a deep breath. It’s now or never, and there’s no better place to say it than against the rough bark of their favorite oak tree. “When I’m with you, it’s like I am the happiest I could ever be.”

Niall opens eir mouth as if to agree, but Zayn cuts em off. “Hang on, I have more.” 

Niall shuts eir mouth again and mimes zipping it up and throwing away the key. Zayn smiles widely, and she’s not nervous anymore. 

“You are the most beautiful person I’ve ever known.” Niall smiles softly at that, and Zayn feels a ball of warmth start to grow in their belly. “Every day with you is the best day in the universe. I feel like the air I breathe when I’m with you is infinitely cleaner. Your eyes are so blue I feel like I’m honestly drowning in them when I look at you. And I love you more than I love anything else that exists.” 

Niall’s cheeks flush pink with happiness. “I love you too.” Niall says softly, and then leans in to peck Zayn gently on the lips. 

Zayn sighs with happiness at the soft press of Niall’s lips. When they pull away, Zayn can’t stop smiling. They grab Niall’s hand and intertwine their fingers. Zayn dozes off with their head in Niall’s lap, with no place they would rather be. 

∞


End file.
